Hello and welcome to Game of Thoughts! I’m still alive and carving time out of my busy weeks for some Game of Thrones goodness. These posts WILL contain spoilers. They are nothing more than a recap and chance for GoT fans to have a bit of a natter and react as situations permit. They were inspired by the incredible, in-depth and insightful posts of Patrick Sponaugle, except his are intelligent and mine are just squeeing.
Even though I greatly enjoyed this episode and there were some big moments (WELCOME BACK GENDRY) it is probably my least favorite episode so far, probably due to the weak intro, but it did redeem itself by the end. So let’s get started!
Poolside with Jaime and Bronn
- I’ll say it – that rescue was weak sauce. NOT because Bronn isn’t capable of pulling off some dashing stuff, but because last week we saw that Jaime was sinking about 20 feet down in some heavy, heavy armor. I doubt Bronn could have gotten him to the surface before Jaime ran out of air – and I’m going to be an even bigger internet pain in in the ass and point out that Bronn leaping off a galloping horse and plowing full-speed into Jaime more than likely would have knocked Jaime’s wind out, so he wouldn’t have had a full lungful when he went into the water.
- Dialogue was okay, and it did show Bronn’s growing impertinence, which comes back on him later.
Dragonstone
- Man. That was some horrific carnage, but props to Tyrion for making himself look at all of it. He’s definitely weighing the human cost of Danaery’s bold move, and it’s not looking good. For some reason a few lines of the Rains of Castamere plays, but I’m not sure who Tyrion is getting vengeance on here – certainly not the plebs who fight in Lannister colors.
- Danaerys is making a hard job even harder, and now Sam Tarly is the lord of Horn Hill, although he doesn’t know it. Lord Tarly was a tool, but Rickon/Dickon seemed all right, and even stood up for what he thought was right. Danaerys giving Tyrion the ‘I’m in command’ look was going full Targaryen, and you never go full Targaryen.
- Jon’s moment with Drogon was sort of ruined for me by the fact that Dany had just made such bad decisions. Although it’s interesting to me that Dany, the woman, has been proving herself crueler in her rule than he did in his own. Although it’s a nice fanservice to the theory of Jon’s Targaryen parentage. And Jorah’s back! Yay!
King’s Landing
- We’ve been denied the Jaime/Bronn training and I was looking forward to seeing some, actually. But secret meetings with Tyrion are also good! I want to believe that they forgave each other, and I think Jaime was close, and then Cersei pulled the Ultimate Crazy Girl card with her ‘I am pregnant.’ I thought for a moment she’d poisoned Jaime because the sound on my hotel tv is garbage and Jaime looked like someone had punched him in the stomach. Then I got on board. But I’m getting back off because NO.
- BWAH HA HA! Davos is getting ALL the best lines this season. “I thought you were still rowing.” Bless you Liam Cunningham, you are keeping these children in line.
- I had a moment when Gendry swung his hammer around. Bless him! He’s all growed up! And killing people! Fun fact: when my gummy vitamins melted in the car they looked just like that guy’s face.
- That literally would have been the smoothest escape ever had Tyrion not screwed it up.
- I suspect Cersei has Bronn already in custody and we’re about to lose a fan favorite.
Dragonstone
- Stark and Baratheon, together again! SO GOOD! God all these little loose ends are finally tying up and OOOO it’s so good.
- And I am concerned that all the love the writers are showing Davos means he is going to die.
The Citadel
- I am totally glad that Sam is done with old men telling him what to do but…
- YOU KIND OF MISSED SOMETHING IMPORTANT THERE, SAM.
- Still, good for them. I hope he goes to Horn Hill and everything is happy for them. After all, he’s the last living heir now!
- Sam and Gilly are actually one of my favorite pairs, as long as they have something to do. And Gilly is doing so well in the city! And doesn’t put up with Sam when he gets pissy! They’re so cute.
Winterfell
- Littlefinger gonna littlefing. He’s up to something, but who’s the target? Is he giving Arya just enough rope to hang herself with?
- Sansa had an important job in this episode, and that job was to mention that Ghost is still alive. And also she is in charge until Jon gets back.
Eastwatch
- Man! The whole episode is named for a place we spent 5 minutes in. Still! Such eventful minutes!
- Packed with FANTASTIC dialogue! Tormund is a treasure.
- The Hound! The gang’s all here!
- I am very excited that we will get to see Beric Dondarrion fire it up (hurrr) and cut up some White Walkers and others next episode. And all the boys fighting together! It’s a total sausage fest, they need Brienne.
- I love the shot of all of them walking in order of height. Jon is the tip of the arrowhead because he is tiny but dangerous. Bless!
Rando Thoughts
- Where the hell is Theon?
- How about Yara Greyjoy?
- How about the Unsullied up at Casterly Rock? We were waiting for some sign of them in the last episode and there’s still no word in this one, unless I missed something. I probably did, I write slow.
- I keep looking for the seams that show where the showrunners are stitching their new, truncated or invented storylines onto GRRM’s. Sometimes I think I can see them (pretty sure Dany goes to Dragonstone and meets Jon there, and the dragonglass is a thing, and the Starks retake Winterfell) but there are others I can’t figure out – like Davos. He ends book 5 in a completely different place, as does Jaime.
- I think another odd thing about the episodes this season are the frenetic pacing between scene switches. Some characters in one location might get one or two lines before we’re off somewhere else. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Anyway! I am exhausted so this recap probably didn’t make as much sense as it could have. Tune in next week for what looks like it will be another AMAZING Episode in a season that just keeps amping up! As always, thank you for reading!
We need more 67 minute episodes…!
(All my thoughts are based on my viewing of the shows, the “newb version” of a recap in the AV Club’s parlance…)
– I’m not wearing his armor, but Jaime was wearing a breast plate with leather tassets and brass splints, pauldrons, which I’m assuming are brass with hammered textures, and a leather gorget with brass fittings, all presumably the best you can buy and made and fitted to him so probably not binding or overly heavy; he also wasn’t wearing any chain mail or leg armor that I could see, so it’s not beyond the pale that with a little (of Bronn’s) help, he could make it back from the lake. If anything, his gold hand would have been more of a hindrance than anything else. It looks like it’s about the weight of a sword, maybe 3 to 5 pounds if solid, about half that if hollow. I like how prominent his sword was in the scene, as if the direction was, “make sure you roll in the mud enough to show you still have your Valerian steel sword, because that’s going to be important later on…”. If he was wearing a full kit like Brienne or Dickon, yeah, that would be more problematic in an inexplicably deep river bed…
– Killing Lord Tarly was necessary, there’s no way Daenerys could let a powerful lord like him live, especially after his conscience wrestled with fighting against the Tyrells, he’d not betray another oath (to Queen Cersei). It was a fitting, violent end for a ruthless, violent man. Dickon, though….damn. My read was that Lord Tarly nodded to Dickon, saying “Go ahead and kneel, she’s got a dragon, don’t follow your old man into hell.” But Dickon did what he felt was right. In the end, Lord Tarly accepted Dickon’s decision with grudging pride. For a ruthless, violent man as I just described him, it was as touching a moment between family members as any in the show.
– ARGH!! SAM!! Listen to the woman! Didn’t “White Man Can’t Jump” teach you anything!?
– I don’t know how I feel about Sam leaving Oldtown. He was still an apprentice, so he never forged any links? Yet somehow he knew how to do major surgery? “I just read the book and followed the instructions.” There is that… So, he’s to be a maester for the Night’s Watch (assuming there is even a Night’s Watch left after the inevitable battle with the White Walkers; and if the White Walkers are destroyed, and there’s a new relationship with the wildlings, is there going to be a need for the Night’s Watch? To many questions…), but he’s now Lord Tarly. That doesn’t exempt him from his oath, and I’m sure there’s a second cousin twice removed somewhere that could take the Tarly name.
– The return of Gendry!! I was so excited to see him again, all grown up and full of conviction and a giant war hammer! I tried to imagine how much Gendry must mirror his old man, Robert, when he was young and powerful. I can just imagine what the duel between Robert and his hammer and Rhaegar must have looked like.
– Sir Davos is the old knight I wish I will become!
– I actually loved the whole Littlefinger/Arya scene. It gives everyone a chance to remember just how devious and lethally clever he is. A little guy with absolutely no martial acumen in a world where life is already cheap for those who do, it’s an important survival skill, especially when he swims with the sharks like he does. I love watching villains; like Euron on the other end of the scale, this was Littlefinger’s “Darth Vader” moment for me!
– Yay, Ghost is alive! I knew that already, but it’s good to have verification.
– The Drogon/Jon scene was really cool and a neat verification of his ancestry, but incredibly unnerving. Drogon is so big and savage looking; touching his nose must have taken unbelievable nerve on Jon’s part. I mean, I don’t know if I would offer my hand to a giant, growling dog, let alone a dragon the size of a 737!
– The Eastwatch part of the show was so exciting! First, I loved seeing a new location in the opening credits, but the roughest, hardbitten characters on the show are finally together to go tear shit up! I’m waiting for the “magnificent seven” memes to appear online!
Stray answers:
– Theon’s probably moping in a room somewhere in Dragonstone. I’d like to see some sort of redemption for Theon.
– Cersei probably has Yara in the cell next to Ellaria and that awful septa.
– No word on the Unsullied, but probably still in Casterly Rock waiting for instructions. Travel and communication are a little dicey; one scene has Jaime and the gold cart in front of Highgarden, a couple scenes later, the gold is in King’s Landing. People know, presumably through word of mouth and ubiquitous ravens the news of battles and events moments after they occur on the show. It’s pushing the barriers of suspension of disbelief for me, but I also know they have to accelerate things on the show, so of course, the gold makes it all the way across Westeros in four and a half minutes of showtime.
– Clegane Bowl looks like a no-go. Shame.
This show is just a treasure!
Jaime’s Armor – Noted, but the way they showed him sinking last episode (torso down with his limbs trailing above) make it seem as if he was going down fast. And he didn’t hit and bob back to the surface, he dropped like a rock. So Bronn would have had to swim down twenty feet (just 12 in a pool is pretty serious!) and haul Jaime back up. That’s what it looked like to me – that Jaime would have been dead weight.
Lord Tarly – Tarly as he is in the show is a bit… unfocused, to me. Maybe I’m not giving the writers enough of a benefit of the doubt where new material is concerned. I did like how he reached for Dickon at the end and touched his arm; that was probably the closest the man ever came to being tender with his family. Sam would have been surprised, for sure! But it was more the fact that Dany made that decision without discussing it with anyone, and completely ignoring Tyrion’s counsel AGAIN.
Sam – You’re right, he never forged any links, but Sam has been doing a lot of experiments and such on his own. And he may have done all the coursework but skipped out on the final exam, if that makes sense. He can be the anti-Qyburn – there’s a bit of a parallel between he and Qyburn already, in that Qyburn performed horrible, life-prolonging-if-not-saving experiments on The Mountain, and Sam performed the same for Jorah. Now Sam’s skipping town like Qyburn did, but he’s a hell of a lot more passionate and moral than Qyburn.
Theon – I would also like to see some kind of redemption for him, but honestly I’d be okay if everyone just left him alone, too. He could head for that monastery in the books that Brienne finds and just plant potatoes all day.
Cleganebowl – But! What if The Hound is one of the ones who takes the Other down to King’s Landing to show Cersei? He’d be all like ‘What’s that stinking pile of overstuffed garbage behind you? #letsdothis’ and then it would be on! I never give up hope where epic swordfights are concerned!